Donald Trump stands astride our politics, comical, embarrassing and terrifying. The country's pundits look upon him, and as one, they ask a single question: Whose fault is this anyway?
The answers are surprisingly varied. One of the more popular...

Published in Los Angeles Times on March 10, 2016 — Print headline: "Who's to blame for Donald Trump?"

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool,” physicist Richard Feynman famously told the young scientists graduating from CalTech in 1974. Fully cognizant of this truth, the scientific establishment...

Published in Los Angeles Times on February 14, 2016 — Print headline: "When failing equals success - `Replication failure' isn't a mark of bad science; it's the pathway to great discoveries."

The resilient popularity of Bernie Sanders' unreconstructed socialism and Donald Trump's unfiltered populism make it clear that the electorate this year is craving "authenticity." Though miles apart ideologically, both insurgents promise to tell...

Published in Los Angeles Times on January 24, 2016 — Print headline: "Why authenticity is the greatest spin of all"

Like Winston Smith after his “re-education” in “1984,” or Randle McMurphy after his lobotomy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” Ayman al-Aloul seems to have been vanquished by the authorities.
Aloul is a journalist in the Gaza Strip. As editor of...

Published in Los Angeles Times on January 15, 2016 — Print headline: "A voice silenced in Gaza"

It's the end of the year, when newspaper columnists are supposed to fill in the blank — “2015 was the year of _______ ” — and decide whether the phenomenon in question falls into the category of “good thing” or “good riddance.”
This year, however, so...

Published in Los Angeles Times on December 24, 2015 — Print headline: "A year of hype and distortion"

Imagine you're afraid of spiders. If you seek psychiatric treatment, your therapist will try to convince you that your fear is irrational. She'll tell you over and over again that daddy long legs are harmless and black widows are rare. Ignore the...

Published in Los Angeles Times on December 23, 2015 — Print headline: "How not to treat terror anxiety"

"Anyone who has watched this videotape, I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.'...

In the digital realm, there are no hard deadlines. Editors can tweak a story and reporters can update it at any moment. The ability to revise without limit — virtually instantaneously — has, of course, revolutionized journalism. But most publications...

A Washington Post journalist jailed in Iran on espionage and other charges for almost 10 months is scheduled to go on trial next week, his lawyer and news outlets said Tuesday.
Jason Rezaian, 39, the newspaper's bureau chief in Tehran, will face trial...

The natural order of the universe was disrupted Wednesday when BuzzFeed, NBC News, the New York Times and a number of other media companies ceded to Facebook the marketing and monetization of portions of their valuable content.Here's how the deal...

Brian Williams has some company in the news anchor hot seat.
George Stephanopoulos, co-anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America," came under fire Thursday for failing to disclose $75,000 in contributions he made to the Clinton Foundation, the...

Facebook has launched Instant Articles, enabling media outlets to publish their stories directly to the social network.
Nine big news publishers, including the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic, have signed on as launch partners. After...

Jeremy Trentelman recalls the very moment he lost control of his own story, not to mention his privacy and a good measure of his sanity: when he posted the evidence of his misadventure with city officials on social media.
A few weeks ago, the...

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 42 months in prison for telling a reporter secrets of a classified operation aimed at sabotaging Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Jeffrey A. Sterling, 47, was convicted in January of leaking details of the potential...

As Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks to focus public attention on immigration during a swing through Nevada on Tuesday, her presidential campaign staff back at Brooklyn headquarters is scrambling to mitigate damage from release of a long-anticipated...

David K. Shipler calls himself a free-speech absolutist in his seventh book, "Freedom of Speech: Mightier Than the Sword."
"Lines are murky," he writes, "and it's always risky to use vague characterizations to give authorities...

Flaunt magazine and denim brand Cult of Individuality came together Tuesday night to throw a Beverly Hills dinner party so star-studded we walked away with a serious case of periodical envy.
The dinner was held to honor actor Norman Reedus ("The...

A jailed Washington Post reporter in Iran faces four charges, including an espionage charge, his lawyer told the newspaper Monday.
Lawyer Leila Ahsan told the Post that Jason Rezaian also faces charges of “conducting propaganda against the...